Uroobah Al-Muneef
Al-Jazirah
The news of EZ10 driverless car was received in Saudi society with great enthusiasm, especially among the Kingdom’s women who are keen to own their own cars. The new vehicle will enable them to ride in their own cars without the need of a driver.
The Emirate of Dubai first announced the smart car, which is expected to cover 20 percent of the country’s transportation services by 2020.
There are hopes that the driverless car will enable women to ride in their own cars after their repeated failed attempts to take the wheel themselves.
Technology always has solutions. It is technology that will allow us to drive our own cars and sit wherever we like and the way we like. It will be our choice to decide what we want to do, without the ‘isolation’ imposed on us by cultural and social stigmas that, in most cases, do not agree with our choices.
Some might say: “Be happy, womenfolk of our country. Here technology, with all its creativity, has contributed to solving a big part of your problems. This is a car which nobody will share with you. It is for you alone.
Finally, you have the right to do whatever you want with your car. Now you have the freedom to move alone. Now you will achieve your ambition after waiting patiently for long. Four years is not a long time. You have got used to ‘having hopes and waiting’ for decades.” Well, I agree with this idea of having hopes and waiting; we have got used to it.
However, with the elapse of four years, and supposing the entry of this car into the Saudi market, which of the womenfolk can afford to own such a car? For sure, it will be costly, as it is a high-tech vehicle. Once again it is only the queen who will have the prerogative to own such a car. She can own such a car because it is not expensive for her. But the “lucky queen”, who can afford to purchase such a car, is actually against the idea of “women driving cars” and does not want it.
Driving cars is not for the captive wealthy class women who are rejecting the idea of women driving, but it is for the overwhelming majority of women for whom driving has never been a choice, but a necessity. It is a vital need that affects their lives and the income they make as a result of their hard work. Sadly, at the end of the month, it is the driver who takes the lion’s share of their income.
Despite the generosity of technology that, day after day, provides us with creative inventions that help us “tackle our disabilities”, we are still in need to take the wheel that is beckoning us, even if a flying car is invented. Expensive technology is only affordable for the financially well-off women who do not need such technology.
